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Canyon County Jail adds mobile housing units in response to overcrowding

Posted at 4:57 PM, Oct 22, 2019
and last updated 2020-01-09 19:22:57-05

It's a problem that Canyon County has wrestled with for years: too few cells in the county jail, and too many inmates.

Voters have consistently rejected bonds that would have allocated millions of dollars to build a new jail, so officials are taking a new approach.

Related: High-risk suspects released due to Canyon County Jail's overcrowding

Officials started moving housing modules onto the detention center's parking lot Tuesday morning. In the end, 28 modules will be welded together to become one self-contained building. The modules will house about 120 inmates.

Related: Critics of $187 million jail bond in Canyon County speak out with alternative plan

The inmates will have heating, air conditioning, showers and bathrooms. Officials say the inmates could start occupying the modules by the end of November. The county obtained the modules through a 5-year lease that includes an option for officials to buy the modules at the end of the lease.

The price tag is about $10 million.